Currently growing

Here is the list of what I have currently growing:

1 small meyer lemon tree
1 jasmine plant
1 big meyer lemon tree (probably about to die)
1 big washington navel orange tree (also probably about to die)
1 hindu rope plant (it was about to die, but is in recovery)
1 jade plant
1 aloe plant
1 spiny cactus (this is hubby's plant. I don't go near it)
1 baby bamboo
1 kalanchoe
1 sedum (think it's a donkey tail succulent but not sure)
1 small pot of moss
3 brandywine tomatos
5 little gem lettuce
3 angel's trumpet flowers
3 petunia flowers (planted 6 but only 3 germinated and 1 looks pretty weak)
1 small wonder spaghetti squash
1 luffa
3 lincoln peas
2 basil
2 thai hot pepper
6 garlic chives in a pot (just planted this past weekend)

Once the weather is warm enough I plant to plant the following:
3 kentucky blue beans
3 german butterball potatoes
1 maypop passionflower
2 calendula flowers
mother of thyme and sagina pearlwort on the bare spots in the front lawn

Once the fall comes around I'll plant:
more little gem lettuce
toy choi
spinach (need to get a fresh packet of these seeds)
maybe kale

Next year, if all goes well, I'll add the following to my repertoire:
yellow of parma onion
tom thumb pea
long island brussel sprouts
pingtung long eggplant
strawberry spinach
shirofumi soybean

We don't have a lot of space to grow things, so there might be space concerns going forward. I'm playing with the idea of succession planting, but I don't think I know enough about it right now. From now on, I'm going to try to order my seeds from the Seed Savers Exchange organization. They're a non-profit organization whose mission is to preserve our heirloom varieties of plants and vegetables, which are fast disappearing due to corporate farming and other commercial factors.

Seedlings weak and leggy

I'm finding that I need something to occupy myself these days. It needs to be something that keeps me active and engaged and this something happens to be gardening. It's still too cold to be outside for long periods of time to work on the garden, but it's not too cold to start seeds indoors.

There are issues to starting seedlings indoors in our house. Our window sills don't get enough sunlight. So the poor things are coming up all leggy and weak. I tried passing my hand over them several times a day to get them to toughen up, but to no avail. Finally, I caved and bought a grow light. I honestly didn't want to spend money on growing seeds, but everything I've read mentions that starting seeds indoors means leggy seedlings unless you get a grow light.

So we went the garden store and bought a bunch of stuff: a planter, potting soil, fertilizer, grow light for countertop, grow light for dwarf tree (more on that in a bit), humidity dome, and a Meyer Lemon tree. The lemon tree is a purchase I am particularly excited about. I had bought one last year, but it was definitely NOT patio size. The one I got last year is as tall as I am and was pruned into this weird, lopsided Y shape. The big meyer lemon tree is not doing well and I think it's going to die. The truth is, I never liked it anyways. So when I saw the little lemon trees at the garden store, the kind that I've always imagined dwarf meyer lemon trees to look like, I got a pot and a grow light for it too.

Citrus trees like a lot of light. I think that's why our bit citrus trees didn't do well this winter. The one grow light we had on them was not enough. My jasmine plant also suffered a great deal, though even before it wintered indoors, there were bugs eating the leaves. I sprayed the jasmine plant with a mixture of minty liquid soap, canola oil, baking soda and water and the bugs died. Unfortunately, I think the plants still suffered from lack of enough light. So they have now been brought upstairs under a different setup.

We have a pendant light at the edge of our kitchen and we put the large citrus trees there. They were in that position before and didn't do too well, but they did better there than in the basement. We put the grow light in the pendant and I fed the trees with some of my newly purchased fertilizer. On the kitchen window sill, I placed the jasmine plant and the small lemon tree and clipped the newly purchased clip-on grow light above them. The lady at the garden store said to put the grow light close, but not so close that the plants can feel heat coming from it. On the far kitchen counter, we set up the counter-top grow light fixture. This is where we placed all our seedlings. The grow light is lowered as close as possible to the seedlings without them feeling too much heat.

The idea of putting the grow lights close is to keep the plants from straining to get more light. Straining to get more light makes them leggy. Some setups include a little fan to simulate wind and to to keep mold from growing on the moist soil. I am not intending to set up a fan. Maybe I'll just blow on the plants every morning and night? Lol! Anyways, I'm a little concerned as to how much energy this is costing us, but my desire for healthy seedlings and indoor plants has overruled my instinct to be frugal. If only my house got more sunlight! I console myself by saying that this is only temporary. Once the weather is nice and warm the seedlings and plants will be moved outside. I'm hoping that this year's experiments produce some good eats!

Thermal cookware with ceramic interior

I'm always on the lookout for a nice food container. I so want these!

http://www.thekitchn.com/italian-made-thermal-cookware-and-storage-with-a-ceramic-interior-international-home-housewares-show-185928

Remember when LAPD was seeking Dorner

Yeah, great police work there:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-torrance-shooting-20130210,0,3955268.story
http://ktla.com/2013/02/09/delivering-newspapers-then-caught-in-a-hail-of-lapd-bullets/

I'm not sure new vehicles and an apology is going to cut it. Isn't there supposed to be protocol before police can just start shooting at you to destroy you and everyone with you in a car? I mean, this is real life, not a hollywood film

Series: Glenn Greenwald on security and liberty Previous | Next | Index Glenn Greenwald on security and liberty US Air Force veteran, finally allowed to fly into US, is now banned from flying back home

Seriously, this sh*t is out of control. Most of us read this and go, "Glad I'm not THAT guy," and move on with our lives. However, anybody ever hear of the slippery slope effect? This sh*t isn't going to stop at just that dude.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/feb/09/saddiq-long-no-fly-list

Supreme Court rules out secret surveillance lawsuits

Why don't we just throw the Constitution out the friggin' window!? I mean, c'mon! The courts are supposed to be upholding the law, not shredding the founding principles our country was built on!

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-court-wiretaps-20130227,0,7654081.story?track=lat-pick

WA rep says tax bike sales, cyclists add to pollution

Uh, how do these people get voted into positions of influence is beyond me:
http://www.kgw.com/news/local/Wash-reps-email-drawing-ire-from-bike-community-194553321.html

Say goodbye to CDs?

For the last couple of weeks, I have been considering tossing my music CD collection. Every time, I am on the verge of dumping them into the trash, nostalgia and sentimentality holds me back. I start thinking, what if my digital collection dies and I need to restore from these hard-copies? What if I want to look at those booklets again? What if I still need these for reasons yet unforeseen? So with these questions in mind, I have kept the collection... thus far.

I am now seriously considering tossing them. Some of these CDs come with very fond memories, reaching as far back as my college years. I still listen to some of those songs, but not from my CDs. In fact, I have not touched my CDs in years. With the advent of iTunes, music-listening devices and my external backup drive, I have had little reason to "failover" to my CDs. Considering the fact that my CDs have been wasting away, with no immediate forecasts of using them anytime soon in the foreseeable future, why should I keep them? They're only taking up space.

The only advantage I can think of for having these is if I wanted to lend these out to a friend. With all the DRM and copyright restrictions on everything digital, borrowing things have become nigh impossible without incurring some rich media organization's litigious wrath. However, most of my friends and I don't listen to the same music. So the chances of lending out stuff is slim. In my mind, it's probably easier to just get rid of them. Most of the collection is so old, I'm not sure if they've degraded to the point where it's not readable anymore.

Anyways, this weekend, I will be going through my collection to see if there is any that I actually want to keep. The rest will either be pushed onto friends or thrown away. Maybe I should offer the entire collection up on FreeCycle. Either way, the space those things are taking up will be freed.

Other projects on the horizon include downloading user manuals and tossing any paper copies, and transferring recipes in books into my recipe application.

Gardening mistakes already made

I have a terrible record when it comes to gardening. I've killed many a plant in my time, but despite the many failures, I can't help but keep trying. There is just something nice about having something alive and growing and green in and around the home.

So what have I done wrong already? Well, here's the list:

1. The 3 tomato plants were started in cardboard egg carton cells. This is bad because the containers are tiny, not allowing the seedlings to grow deep roots and get strong. I think I'm going to try to transplant them into toilet paper rolls or newspaper pots and see if they survive that. The backup plan if my seedlings die is to buy a small brandywine tomato plants from the greenmarket (once they re-open)

2. Not enough light from the window to grow strong seedlings. Yes, some of my plants have sprouted, but they're still looking week and leggy. I'm hoping hubby will be willing to take me to the garden center this coming weekend so I can get some grow lights. I did read that you can construct your own out red and blue LED Christmas lights, but I'm not a handy person, so that may not be the best route for me.

3. Some seeds are too old. My lettuce and spinach seeds still haven't sprouted. They are very old and I don't think they'll be coming up anytime soon. I think I'll just have to toss the seeds and buy new ones. I don't think it's too late to start anew, but it's a bit disappointing nonetheless.

4. Some seedlings are drying out too fast. When I first planted the seeds, I covered them with a small glass jar. The tomato seedlings are now tall enough that soon the glass jar will be too small. However, if I uncover the seedlings, the soil tends to dry out too fast since the windowsill they're on is right above a heater. The heater was great for bottom germination, but terrible about keeping moisture. My seedlings aren't dead yet so maybe if I could find a big tray, fill the bottom with a layer of pebbles in some water and then put the seedlings on top, the seedlings won't dry out as fast. It would be nice if I had a nice big dome to cover the entire set of seedlings, but I don't have anything like that. I'm imagining a beautiful mini-greenhouse, like the stuff for big terrariums. Or maybe I'll just go to the garden center and get a big seed starting tray with a fitted dome. I'm all for makeshift stuff, but I'm finding the stuff I do have at home is just not cutting it in this case.

So despite mistakes having been made, the growing season hasn't really started in my zone yet, so there's still hope. Some of my plants have really suffered wintering indoors, but again, this is a learning experience since I've never tried a lot of this stuff before. I suppose I shouldn't feel too discouraged and should remember that despite any failures, I have had some successes. Last year, I did harvest enough basil to make a batch of pesto and we did have some fantastic tomatoes. I also successfully forced some tulip bulbs into blooming indoors in January and our one sedum leaf that we stuck into some soil has sprouted babies. All is not lost after all!

Movies

I recently came across this little opinion piece:
www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/9904278/Why-cant-men-just-be-men-any-more.html

The writer here laments how in today's world, actors who have invested heavily on getting their bodies into peak physical shape are more popular than men of the average body. He does acknowledge that what is happening to the male actor and in turn, the social pressures on men, is something that women have had to contend with for generations already. Unfortunately, I found it difficult to sympathize his lament because of the fact that instead of saying, we should celebrate the average person's looks in every age and gender, he is nostalgic for the days when average-looking Roger Moore can still get hot chicks younger than his daughter.

It's true that I find it disturbing that instead of having more average and healthy-looking women be the norm in Hollywood, they are re-making the image of men into something equally unattainable. On the other hand, Hollywood is all about the fantasy and the unattainable. It isn't exactly known for its faithful representation of facts and/or reality. The way I see it, I have less of a problem with movies featuring handsome, shirtless men with gorgeous, well-endowed women than I do with movies featuring old, paunchy men sucking face and pawing at a hot, nubile woman young enough to be his granddaughter. Honestly, Hollywood is still casting actors and actress like that and it grosses me out, despite the fact that we're supposed to just ignore the obvious age disparity and pretend that the 20 year old woman is really supposed to be a 35 year old mom and that 50 year old dude is really supposed be a 40 year old who is not single because there is something wrong with him, but because he just hasn't found the right woman yet. Blech!

So to the author of that article linked above, I have to say that although I understand that you don't want our boys to chase after an unattainable goal for themselves, I do not like how you seem to have no problems with the fact that women have been faced with this to the point where we have terrible illnesses like bulimia and anorexia. When you ended the article saying you'd still watch Roger Moore if he were still around, lamenting how Daniel Craig have sort of ruined the fun of Bond movies for an old man like you, I feel no sympathy. Obviously you'd like watching the average old, balding man with a belly get a hot girl because you can then go home and feel good about yourself, rather than go home, look in the mirror and feel dejected. How do you think thousands of women feel? Instead of saying you want the old Bond movies back, how about you saying you'd like to see more movies of old, not-so-pretty women, getting a young, hot-blooded dude, and more movies of average-looking men like Roger Moore getting paired up with women who look his age and are just as average-looking in body size and weight.

So yes, Hollywood is finally getting around to cashing in on the idea that hot dudes bring female audiences to the theaters, and they are being well-rewarded for their efforts. Considering how long men have had eye-candy to stare at, I say if we can't improve things so that both men and women can celebrate the average body and face, then I'll settle for gender parity where women can get their eye candy too. Maybe this way, men will finally get the idea that being objectified and constantly looked at takes its toll on a person. Maybe this way, some men will learn to show a little friggin' compassion towards women's struggle against body image issues. In the author of the above article's case, there is apparently no hope he'll ever "get it."

The luffa has sprouted!

I had a packet of very old luffa seeds and finally decided I should try growing this year. I planted them in a small pot with potting soil and waited and waited. The tomatoes sprouted first, but still no luffa. Then the petunias and still no luffa. After that, the angel's trumpet sprouted and yet, still no luffa.

I began to think the seeds were dead and I might have to use the pot to grow something else when lo and behold! Last night, I spotted two seedlings! I felt a spark of joy when I saw them, but now I worry the growing season here isn't long enough. Perhaps I should have started them earlier indoors. In any case, if things don't go well, there's always next year.

Why grow luffa? Well, it's a wonderful natural sponge. You can decontaminate it in the microwave like a commercial sponge, but at the end of its life, you can compost the thing. Hubby doesn't like using it, but I think hubby just isn't used to it. Maybe if I cut a bunch of luffa into sponges and hide/throw away all the plastic sponges, he'll be forced to use them and then get used to them? Heh heh heh...

Another miscarriage

I suffered a second miscarriage recently. Unlike the first one, this one happened later, in my late first trimester, which meant it was painful and the natural process took a bit longer. When we found out the fetus wasn't viable and to expect a miscarriage, I specifically asked the doctor what to expect. Her response was not to worry unless there were signs of hemorrhaging, meaning bleeding through a pad an hour. She said nothing of the discomfort or the pain.

When I began to miscarry, I can say that I had really bad cramps, like labor pains. It came and went in waves and the only time I felt any kind of minimal relief was when I walked around. So in between running to the bathroom to pass clumps, I was walking around the house. After passing a rather large clump, I felt better almost instantly. However the saga wasn't over. I started having pain soon after. It built and built until I couldn't sleep I was in so much pain. Finally it was too much to bear and I called the midwife, who advised that I take 4 Advils and an antihistamine to help me get some rest. An hour later, the meds had no effect and hubby drove me to the emergency room, where they stuck an IV in me and gave me a combination of Motrin and morphine.

I have never taken as much medications as I did that night and certainly have never been on anything stronger than the advised dosage for OTC stuff. Despite the morphine, I was still in pain, but at least I was more comfortable. I was poked a prodded a few more times and the doctors said that my uterus had very little to pass and they didn't want to do any procedures considering there wasn't much in there to get out. However, I was still in pain and when it was suggested that I be sent home with OTC ibuprofen, I panicked. I didn't want to go home only to be writhing and sobbing in pain again. The doctor relented after seeing me beg over and over for help and sent me home with a prescription for percoset, which again didn't make the pain completely go away, but definitely helped. I supplemented with my own advils and was finally able to get some sleep.

The next few days continued to be uncomfortable. My next visit to the doctor was a terrible experience because the doctor was horrible and poked an prodded me with jerky motions, causing pain and discomfort. She was also the only medical professional, whether nurse or doctor, that didn't bother to say the perfunctory, "Sorry for your loss." I was so glad to be out of there when I was discharged. That was the visit that confirmed that my uterus was clean and everything was back to normal.

I no longer needed strong medications at that point, but there were still some pain. Over the course of the next few days, I felt better and better. I feel okay now, but am rather pissed about how no one told me that late trimester miscarriage could be painful or at best, really uncomfortable. If it weren't for the internet, I would not have known if what I went through was normal. Thankfully, because medical sites and other pregnancy related information don't say sh*t about what late first trimester miscarriages could be like, women posted their own personal experiences to forums, blogs and other sites. I thank these women from the bottom of my heart for sharing their painful moments. Many were just as angry as I was that no one warned them or told them what to expect or what was normal. There was simply no information provided. None whatsoever. It is a travesty considering how often miscarriages happen that there is such a dearth of information on this topic. I am beginning to wonder if would still be the case if men could give birth.

New year, new gardening ambitions

Our back yard really doesn’t have a lot of room for gardening and only small sections of it get full sun. Since I also have a black thumb, I tried keeping my garden ambitions modest. Last year, we grew/planted the following:

Peppermint

Basil

Brandywine tomatoes

Cherokee tomatoes

Horseradish

Garlic (fall planted)

I am a little concerned about the peppermint plant. Towards the end of the summer and into fall, the plant looked sickly with yellow and brown leaves. Looking online, this could be a fungal infection, which could spread to other herbs in the garden and is nigh impossible to get rid of. One person suggested cutting the plant down to the soil level, taking the plant out and re-potting it in fresh compost after washing it vigorously. I’m not sure if the plant can take that kind of abuse, but the poster said that mint is pretty hard to kill.

I tried to save the basil and overwinter it indoors, but as soon as it came into the house, it developed black spots on the leaves that spread throughout the plant and it died. This year, I’m going to try growing basil again. I’m hoping it will grow well enough for me to make some more pesto!

Of the two tomato plants, we loved brandywine the most, so this year I’m only planting brandywine tomatoes. Last year, I planted the two tomato plants too close together and I massively underestimated how big they would get, which made our little stakes completely useless. We did not get many tomatoes last year. This year, I will plant them farther apart and we'll use tomato cages to support them.

The horseradish is a root we bought at the local supermarket for our seder last spring. I saved a pieced of the root and buried it in a large planter and it thrived all throughout summer, the leaves only died when the winter got cold. I am planning to dig the root up this spring to use for this year’s seder. Since this winter has been rather cold, I have high hopes that this root will be extra pungent. I am planning to replant a part of the root again, same as last year.

Last year, my in-laws gifted us with the most delicious, fantastic garlic we’ve ever tasted. I saved a big bulb and planted 5 individual cloves last fall. They did sprout a little before the winter killed off the tops, but they are sprouting again now. From what I’ve read, I should be able to dig them out around mid-summer. I can save another big bulb and plant the cloves again this fall for another summer harvest. You can plant garlic in the spring for a fall harvest, but the bulbs won’t be as big.

In addition to the plants I mentioned I’ll be planting again this year, I’m planning to add a few things to the garden:

Lincoln peas

Kentucky Blue beans

German butterball potatoes

Bloomsdale Longstanding spinach

Little Gem Lettuce

Garlic Chives

Luffa

Angel Trumpet flowers

Petunias

Cover crops

The Kentucky Blue beans will be planted where the tomatoes were last year. I read that planting beans will restore some of the nitrogen used up by plants that are heavy feeders, such as tomatoes.

The peas will be planted after the garlic has been pulled. I think peas also replace nitrogen used up by previous plants, but really, I just wanted to try planting peas. Plus, I’d rather not leave the garlic patch bare for months at a time.

I bought a potato bag to grow the potatoes in and am hoping the potato plant doesn’t get too obnoxiously big like our tomato plants did. I read that they tend to spread out and some people have had success caging or staking them. I guess we’ll see how it goes. I haven't received the seed potatoes from my order yet.

The chives, Luffa and flowers are going into pots. The luffa is a vining plant that I’m planning to grow in a big pot and let it climb up our back porch. I am considering getting a trellis for the luffa, but I’m not even sure the old seeds I’ve got will germinate. The petunias have a weeping habit so I’m planning to put them in a window box in the front porch. It’s a bit shady there, so the flowers might end up not doing so well, but we’ll see. The trumpet flowers have an upright habit, so I’ll keep it in a pot and if it doesn’t like one location, I can move it to another.

The spinach and the lettuce doesn’t like full sun or high heat, so I’ll most likely be growing them in the front yard or indoors. I’m not growing very many as I’m not sure how successful I’ll be. Also, the seeds I have are very old and they might be dead. If that is the case, I'll dump the current batch and start again.

This year, I may try growing cover crops. Cover crops replace nitrogen used up in the soil, prevent soil erosion and smother weeds. They are usually planted after pulling up plants that have been “used up.” Cover crops need to be mowed down and tilled into the soil before they flower and re-seed themselves into the patch. They need to be tilled into the soil 2 to 3 weeks before new crops are planted.

So as you can see, I’m feeling rather ambitious this year. I’m rather excited about the project and can hardly wait for the weather to be warm enough for me to start working on the garden outside. Right now, the garden's a mess as we failed to clean it up after the plants died. So once it's warm enough, I'll be out there pulling and cutting up stuff and then adding fresh compost. Yay!